the dying social bookmark

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I have been publicly promoting social bookmarks since 2005, when I was using a defunct tool called FURL. Since then I have used Magnolia, Delicious, Diigo, and Pinboard. The first two are gone and the last two seem to be waning. For example, I cannot access my account settings when logged-in to Pinboard. Others are having no luck getting support from Diigo.

What are social bookmarks? They are like bookmarks on your browser except they are available online from any device, they are searchable, and you can add metadata like hashtags and categories. They can be public or private. The most important aspect is that they are shareable. Here are my Diigo bookmarks and Pinboard pins, as examples.

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friday’s mindset

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On the last Friday of each month, without any assistance from Generative AI, I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Technology is not the sum of the artifacts, of the wheels and gears, of the rails and electronic transmitters. Technology is a system. It entails far more than its individual material components. Technology involves organization, procedures, symbols, new words, equations, and, most of all, a mindset.” —Ursula Franklin (1989) The Real World of Technology, via @cornazano

“I’m grateful for Mastodon. I have very mixed feelings about social media, but a social media platform that:

• Isn’t controlled by billionaires
• Has no advertising
• Doesn’t harvest your data, and
• Doesn’t algorithmically promote anger and hatred is a precious thing.”
—@Bodipaksa

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crucial knowledge may be impossible to express

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In many fields, there is some critical knowledge that is very difficult to codify. “It’s the kind of knowledge that is never written down and yet can be crucial, even in the highest of hi-tech enterprises. And you won’t find it in ChatGPT, either”, says John Naughton in The Guardian.

KM expert, Nick Milton discussed the codification of knowledge and created this breakdown.

  1. impossible to express,
  2. can be expressed but has not been yet,
  3. expressed in speech but not documented,
  4. recorded knowledge, or
  5. information.

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sensemaking routines

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“Data doesn’t say anything. Humans say things.”
—Andrea Jones-Rooy, Professor of data science, NYU

In 2014 I asked — what is your PKM routine?  I highlighted the routines of Jane Hart and Sacha Chua, and then described my own. Over time I added dozens of other examples that were shared online. My own PKM routine has changed over these years. My general principles are to keep my routine simple, use as few tools as possible, and limit any automating processes. My last post — manual sensemaking — explains the latter.

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manual sensemaking

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Sensemaking is a manual skill, which can be assisted with various tools, but the most important tool is our mind, using good practices.

Ideas often emerge in the complex domain, which is where people working in a network economy need to be active, probing, and playing. We also need to do shallow dives into the chaotic domain. Neither of these activities will be helped through automation. If anything, automation will make us lazy, or unaware.

The process of seeking out people and information sources, making sense of them by taking some action, and then sharing with others to confirm or accelerate our knowledge, are those activities from which we can build our knowledge. Managing and sharing information, especially through conversations, are fundamental processes for sensemaking in the complex domain. Sensemaking is acting on one’s knowledge.

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altering views

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On the last Friday of each month, without any assistance from Gen AI, I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

“Working from home 1 day a week cuts carbon by 2%. 2-4 days up to 29%. Full-time 54%.” —Anthropocene Magazine

“German is so efficient. You say ‘Fachkräftemangel’ for ‘Companies not paying enough to attract suitable candidates and then complaining to the state to worsen the work environment for everyone so their shitty jobs find candidates again.’ what a beautiful language.” —@kaia

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learning from failure

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In 2019 I noted in hybrid sailors that the US Navy was piloting a new way of manning its Littoral Combat class ships, which are modular by design. The crew are all multi-purpose, with several roles onboard and always learning new tasks. They operate with one-fifth the crew size of a regular ship. Specialization is a thing of the past for these crews. One reason for this is that specialized knowledge has an increasingly shorter lifespan, so generalists who are good learners can make for a more flexible, or agile, crew. This approach also has its downsides, such as fewer redundant positions onboard to mitigate combat losses, and lack of deep knowledge for some complex problems.

I concluded that organizations should start testing out new models now. Learn from the Navy and others who are trying new ways of organizing work. For individuals, the ability to ‘flexibly shift’ may become a critical work skill.

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The future of work?

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There is lots of talk and writing about the future of work. I follow the #FutureOfWork hashtag on Mastodon. A recent report produced for Unilever — The Future of Work is Flexible — featured three ideas:

  • Embrace the ‘pixelated’ workforce.
  • The rise of the internal talent marketplace
  • Is the ‘skills passport’ the future of recruitment?

The report features several drivers of change, such as how AI can decompose [pixelate] jobs into smaller pieces for employees and contractors to compete for work. Fractional hiring then blurs the lines between full-time and contract work, which leads to an internal marketplace for work. This can lead to more precarious work but as the report notes, it can also result in ex-employees getting called back for contract work at their convenience. Re-skilling is a major theme of the report stating that many skills degrade after 2.5 years.

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Top Tools 2023

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I almost missed Jane Hart’s Top Tools for Learning survey which closed today. Since I’m in a later time zone, I am going to assume that this submission will be accepted. A few things have changed since last year, as I am migrating away from Twitter due to its new owner, and using Mastodon. I also stopped using Feedly and have switched back to Inoreader. The last two tools (Merlin & Seek) I continue to use for learning about the natural world.

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Meet me on Mastodon

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Last November, I started shifting my online networking from Twitter to Mastodon — Whither Twitter? Mastodon has now become my social network of choice. I’m starting to have better conversations though it’s not as active as my Twitter feed used to be, but that’s to be expected with 20 times fewer followers and I only follow about one fifth as many people as I did on Twitter. I will continue to invest in better conversations and knowledge sharing on Mastodon because it’s a platform I can trust.

For 15 years Twitter had been my go-to professional social network. The hell-scape that is now Twitter should be a wake-up call to take better control of our social networks. I have not deleted my account there because I do not want someone else to take my identity @hjarche. It’s now just a place I check every few days and post notices like my upcoming PKM workshop.

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